After Theory, Before Big Data

Friedrich Kratochwil studied Philosophy, Politics, and Ancient History at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany, and went as a Fulbright grantee to the USA where he received a MA in International Relations from Georgetown University and a PhD in Political Science from Princeton University. He taught at the universities of Maryland, Columbia, Denver, and Penn, before returning to Europe in 1995, serving as Chair of International Relations at the LMU in Munich and at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy (2003–2011). He was the editor of the European Journal of International Relations (2000–2004) and has served on editorial boards of political science, law, and sociology journals in the USA, Europe, and Asia. His most recent book was entitled Praxis: On Acting and Knowing (2018).

• Introduction 1. Three Stories to Ponder and One Gedankenexperiment 2. (Alternative) Facts, Historical Narratives, and the Issue of "Objectivity" in the Social Sciences: A Conceptual Exploration 3. Much Ado About What? Some Reflections on a Theory of Practice, Identity and Social (Re)-production 4. The View to Nowhere and the Problem of Social Ordering